Main Oven (Convection Oven) - Side heat
To prepare meat for roasting in your electric oven
Times and Temperatures for roasting
Wipe the joint, dry well with a clean cloth, kitchen tissue etc. and weigh it. Meat which has been stored in a refrigerator, should be allowed to come to room temperature for approximately 30 minutes before cooking, similarly, meat stored in a freezer must be completely thawed beforehand. Beef, lamb and mutton may be lightly floured, but pork should have the rind scored, brushed over lightly with olive oil and sprinkled with salt - this gives a crisp crackling.
Place joint in the meat pan. Additional fat should not be used, except for veal, very lean meat and poultry which can either be ‘larded’ with fat bacon, or brushed over very sparingly with melted fat/cooking oil. When potatoes are to be roasted around the joint, they only need to be coated in melted fat/cooking oil, it is not necessary to baste when roasting in an electric oven. Liquid/stock should not be added to the roasting tray.
For optimum cooking performance, there must be clearance between the meat pan and the oven sides.
The secret of succulent, tender meat, is not to roast it too quickly at too high a temperature. Best results are obtained when roasting is carried out at a low temperature. When a lower temperature is used, the joint loses less weight, is more tender (too high a temperature causes meat to be tough and dry), and the splashing of fat onto the oven interior is reduced to a minimum. When a complete meal is being cooked in the oven, cooking time may need to be increased and temperature may need to be raised for approximately the last 30 minutes of the cooking period (for instance when cooking Yorkshire Pudding, to serve with roast beef).
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